Celebrity cricket team forced off flight at Kochi

Indigo is the travel partner of the Kerala Strikers.

Thiruvananthapuram |
Published:February 22, 2014 3:31 am

A 27-member celebrity cricket team floated by Kerala film artistes, Kerala Strikers, was offloaded from a Hyderabad-bound Indigo flight at Kochi airport on charges of “misbehaving with crew and creating unruly scene in the flight’’.

Indigo is the travel partner of the Kerala Strikers. The team got stranded at the Kochi airport Friday afternoon, but some of them left for Hyderabad, where they have a match on Saturday, in other flights.

Film artiste and Kerala Strikers team member Edavela Babu said they have not misbehaved with anyone. “After in-flight announcements, we clapped as a mark of travelling together. Soon an air-hostess raised a protest against our action and complained to the pilot, who immediately asked us to deplane,’’ said Babu.

He said the flight crew should not have reacted in such a manner since the Kerala Strikers is their client.

Indigo spokesman was not available for comment, but airport police said the pilot of the flight has given a statement which said the 27-member team created unruly scene minutes before the flight was to take off. They also misbehaved with the crew. Hence, they were offloaded. This was not a complaint seeking action against anyone, but the airlines wanted to inform the police.